Upgrading Hong Kong to a Smart City with the Greater Bay Area, says an urban planner

出自香港新聞網 - 樹仁新傳系學生實習習作

Hong Kong is looking for a better plan for ‘Smart City’, support from the Greater Bay Area can be an opportunity or a challenge, said an urban planner.

The popularity of smartphones has encouraged people to use e-wallets in their daily lives, further accelerating the construction of ‘Smart City’, said Stanley Ng, the CEO of MapKing.com, at Shue Yan University weekly forum.

Last month, the Central Government issued the ‘Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’, aims to build Hong Kong into a world-leading ‘Smart City’.

“Although Hong Kong is an international city, regarding the level of ‘Smart City’ in Hong Kong, there is still a gap compared with Singapore,” said Ng. He took the new electric minibus as an example, the Singapore government has widely publicized the technology, so the citizens know it well. Thus, encouraging citizens to develop their technology continuously.

He said, the Hong Kong government always stay at the observation stage without further development, hence no one will continue to invest on new technology. Therefore, Hong Kong may need the support from mainland China.

While Hong Kong is a member of the Greater Bay Area, Ng said that it can be an opportunity or a challenge for the development of ‘Smart City’. “Mainland China has a huge restriction of information, so it is necessary to consider the issue of information circulation and disclosure,” he said.

As the information of some cities in the Mainland are not open, resulting in poor communication between Hong Kong and the mainland cities. Ng said, it would be a big concern for Hong Kong.

He said, the Hong Kong government should promote more about the construction of ‘Smart City’. “To ensure the public's personal privacy since ‘Smart City’ will involve a lot personal privacy, so it must not be taken lightly,” said Ng.--165009 2019年3月19日 (三) 19:33 (CST)